


coming home

by punkhale



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of canon character death, Prom, Shopping, Tumblr Prompt, post 3b, pre-season 4/no season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:58:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2368388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkhale/pseuds/punkhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What is that, a banner? Having you been watching Martha Stewart? Please don’t tell me there’s handmade doilies laying around too. Wait, are there people coming over for this?"<br/>--<br/>aka Cora returns to Beacon Hills and finds herself reaching out to one Lydia Martin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	coming home

**Author's Note:**

> **prompt:** could you write something about Cora coming back to Beacon Hills and somehow ending up helping Lydia, because while everyone else in the pack is used to her scent, Cora can't believe how anxious and exhausted and frightened Lydia is. So she brings it upon herself to help, because she knows what it's like to lose someone. Focusing on Lydia and Cora's understanding of loss rather than the sadness of her loss. It's in the past you know.

Cora had thought going back to South America was the answer to the ache in her chest. Finding out Derek was alive was, was building a pack, had felt too good to be true. She’d left immediately, desperate for some connection to her family, something to help lift the weight of her loneliness off her shoulders. But being back in Beacon Hills had hurt. She’d known of course that things would never be the way they were. Just because her brother, and apparently her uncle, were alive didn’t mean things were better. They’d fought a bad guy, saved the day, the whole deal.

But the day-to-day didn’t feel like a victory. Everything still sucked, only instead of sitting around alone being miserable she sat around with Derek being miserable.

So she left, packed up her bags and announced that she was going back to Argentina, back to the pack who had taken her in all those years ago. It had hurt Derek, she knew it did, could see it in his eyes. She didn’t like hurting him but she was selfish so she went anyways.

Only Argentina wasn’t the same when she got back. The pack was the same of course, and her room was relatively untouched. Dolores, one of the betas who she lived with, still made her go to school and everything was the same on the surface, right down to the broken bathroom window and the old truck that sat in the driveway.

But now it all seemed empty, the people faceless, and something in her chest _hurt_. She thought she had come home when really she had left it.

\--

"What is that, a banner? Having you been watching Martha Stewart? Please don’t tell me there’s handmade doilies laying around too. Wait, are there people coming over for this?"

Derek just grinned at her. Really _grinned_ , with all his teeth and everything. She couldn’t remember ever seeing the expression on his face, hadn’t expected to see it after the long phone call with him when he’d told her about the nogitsune, about Allison.

"Only a few, the pack. They want to see you."

Cora lifted an incredulous brow. She hadn’t exactly been very nice to them last time she was here. She’d told herself it was because they weren’t Derek’s pack or anything, but that was a lie. They’d always been Derek’s pack, whether he accepted it or not. And that had been the problem, he’d had a pack and she’d been left to stand on the outside and wonder what she was doing there.

It wasn’t going to be like that now though, she wasn’t going to let it.

She dropped her bag down onto the floor, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it on top of the bag before walking over to where Derek was standing by the window. They looked at each other for a minute and Cora could tell her brother was nervous, not sure what to do, what to say. So she smiled at him and that seemed to rid him of some of the tension. He smiled back before pulling her in for a hug, arms tight around her. She buried her face against his chest, clinging to him just as tightly and breathing in the smell of him. Home, family, _pack._

\--

The welcome back party wasn’t so bad. Derek had ordered a bunch of pizzas (he remembered her preference for sausage and mushrooms and she’d had to fight the urge to hug him again) and Stiles had even brought one of those big, grocery store sheet cakes, although she suspected that was probably more for his own benefit than for hers. She could sense the void that Allison had left in the group but there was also two new faces, Kira and Malia. Derek had told her of course about Malia, about how they were cousins, but she it hadn’t seemed real until she was looking at the girl. She didn’t look much like a Hale, but Cora supposed she probably took after her mother.

As long as she didn’t take after Peter. That was the last thing they needed.

Lydia was late and Cora was tempted to make a snarky comment about it except that when the redhead finally did show up Cora was hit with the strong scent of grief and exhaustion. Scott smelled like it too, but Kira’s presence seemed to lighten it, the smiles she pulled from him letting him breathe easier.

But Lydia came in alone and she smelled alone.

The familiarity of it made something twist in Cora’s stomach. She kept the snarky comment to herself.

“There you are Lyds!” Stiles greeted. “We got your favourite pizza!”

Lydia raised one of her perfectly groomed eyebrows and Cora was struck with how well she hid her anxiety, even as she reeked of it. “You ordered spinach and feta pizza?”

“Errr.” Stiles bit his lip. “Your second favourite?”

Lydia rolled her eyes and came to stand in front of Cora, her gaze going from mild amusement to critical. Lydia had always looked at her that way and it made her wolf bristle.

“So you’re back,” she said finally.

Cora nodded. “Yeah, I’m back.”

“For good this time?”

Cora looked over at Derek who was watching her closely and she wished she could read his expression. She felt like the whole room was waiting for her answer. She thought of Argentina and Dolores, thought of the friends she’d made at school there and the pack dinners she’d gone to.

“Yeah, for good this time.”

\--

She didn't see Lydia again for a week. Scott and Stiles came and went from the loft in a way they hadn't last time Cora was there. It was easy to see how their friendship with her brother had grown. It was easy to see how Derek's gaze lingered on Stiles, the way their banter had taken on a softer edge.

It was while she was on a snack run for a movie night with the three of them that she ran into Lydia. She could smell her long before she saw her, a mix of expensive perfume and grief. She was staring at a shelf of crackers.

"Are you trying to set them on fire with your mind or are you going to pick a box?" Cora asked, leaning against the shelf.

Lydia looked up at her, slightly wide-eyed. She reminded Cora very much of a deer in the headlights and Cora could either run her over or ask her to bring her crackers for movie night.

“Triscuits were Allison’s favourite,” Lydia said, still looking slightly dazed.

Cora nodded. “Triscuits it is then. I think Derek likes them too.”

Lydia scrunched her brow together. “What?”

“We’re having a movie night at the loft. You should come. We have snacks. Or, we will once I buy some.”

“What are you watching?”

Cora shrugged. Don’t know yet, Stiles was supposed to bring something over.”

“Probably Star Wars.”

“Probably.”

She watched as Lydia thought about it, biting her lip and looking back at the Triscuits. After a moment she picked the box off the shelf. “Alright.”

Cora gave her a small smile. She wanted to reach out for the other girls hand, give it a comforting squeeze, but her and Lydia weren’t that close and their friendship, if it could even be called that, mostly consisted of thinly veiled threats, sarcasm, and exasperation.

Lydia payed for her crackers while Cora picked up a few other things -soda, chips, popcorn, and the cookies Stiles had made her swear to get.

“Did you drive here?” Lydia asked as they left the store, her heeled boots licking against the pavement.

Cora shook her head. “Derek won’t let me take the Camaro.”

“So you what, ran?”

Cora glanced over at her, noticed how her mask had slipped back into place and she was once again the contained, aloof, pain in the ass she usually was. She chose not to reply.

Lydia rolled her eyes. “I’m driving.”

\--

The surprise on Derek face when she brought Lydia back with her was evident but he didn’t say anything, just held her gaze for moment before nodding. The movie wasn’t Star Wars because apparently Scott had requested something funny so they watched The Birdcage instead which Cora had seen a million times but always loved.

Lydia loosened up a lot around the guys, falling into easy banter with Stiles and relaxing into her seat next to Scott on the couch. She was still guarded, Cora could see it in the set of her jaw, and she wondered if the others noticed. Maybe they were just used to it, resigned to the distance she kept.

Cora knew about distance, knew what it was like to close a part of yourself off; in fact it was something she excelled at. Losing what you thought was your entire family at once wasn’t something a lot of people could even begin to understand. It left a void in you that nothing could fill and nothing could make you forget about.

The void in Lydia was shaped like her best friend and there would never be another Allison.

But there was movies and food and friends who made bad jokes and there was Cora, who found herself watching Lydia more than the movie.

\--

“Do you have Lydia’s number?”

Derek looked up from his cereal and Cora was struck with how normal and domestic he looked, like he was finally okay with just being a guy eating cereal in his pajamas on a Saturday morning instead of an intimidating alpha wolf. This was the Derek she preferred, the one she remembered from before the fire.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t have it obviously.”

He took another bite of his cereal, watching her curiously. She fought the urge to fidget under his gaze. “I have it,” he said finally.

Cora waited but he didn’t continue. “Could you give it to me?”

He shrugged. “I guess. Why? Is something wrong?”

“Does something have to be wrong?”

She moved towards the half-filled coffee pot. Caffeine was becoming increasingly more necessary, especially if Derek was going to be an unhelpful pain in the ass, aka an older brother. She may have preferred this version of him but that didn’t mean she wasn’t tempted to whack him upside the head.

Derek shrugged again. “My phone’s on my nightstand, feel free.”

She poured herself a cup, made a face at the plain creamer her brother kept in the fridge, and went to retrieve the phone, Derek’s eyes on her the whole time.

She copied Lydia’s number and went back to her room, which was really just an open space upstairs with a bed and a dresser, not caring how obvious it was that she was avoiding the kitchen. Derek could think whatever he wanted, she could always use his crush on Stiles as blackmail.

It was just like when they were kids.

For once she found herself smiling at the memories of her and her siblings running around the house, teasing each other and bellowing while their parents tried to reign them in. They had been terrors, all of them. She wondered what Derek would do if she put itching powder on his sheets again.

Sitting on the bed, phone in front of her, she sipped her coffee. Having Lydia’s number was one thing, actually using it was completely different. They hadn’t fought since Cora had returned, the tension nothing like the first time she had come back. But they weren’t exactly friends. Cora wasn’t really friends with anyone. She talked to Stiles sometimes, picked on Derek with him and made fun of him for his taste in movies, but that was about it. Malia was good company but she asked a lot of questions and Cora wasn’t good at answering them. Derek had always been better at that kind of thing.

She’d been back for three weeks but she was still carving out her place in the pack, still trying to squash the doubts that crept into her mind while she was trying to sleep.

When the mug was empty she finally picked up the phone. Calling would be too much and Derek would be able to hear the conversation which she didn’t want. She typed out a quick text and hit send before she could change her mind.

> _What are you up to today? -Cora_

After a few minutes of no response she left the phone on her bed to dig through the dresser for some clothes for the day. She wasn’t going to sit around and wait for Lydia to text her back, she was going to shower and go about her day and if the redhead deemed fit to respond then all the better. It’s not like she was desperate or anything.

But she couldn’t stop the little flip her stomach did when she came back to her room, hair hanging damp around her shoulders, and saw the little “new text” notification on her phone. She looked at it for a moment, biting her lip. Why the hell was she so nervous? It was just Lydia. Pain in the ass, too smart for her own good, Lydia Martin. She shook the feeling off, rolling her eyes -at the phone, at herself, at the whole situation.

She opened the text and looked down at it. It was a one word response.

> _Shopping._

Cora looked over at her mostly empty dresser, stuffed primarily with worn t-shirts and jeans, before shooting back her reply.

> _Same. Come pick me up._

There wasn’t a reply after that and she had to admit surprise when she heard Lydia’s car pull up twenty minutes later. Derek gave a her a _look_ when she passed through the kitchen, dropping her coffee mug in the sink, but she shot him a glare and he held up his hands in surrender.

“I’m borrowing the credit card,” she said, having already nicked it from his wallet. The Hale family had always been loaded -she wasn’t worried about it.

Derek shrugged. “Don’t break any laws.”

She whapped him upside the head when she walked by but he only laughed. _Brothers._

Lydia was waiting in the car, hair perfectly curled and pinned to her head and some pop song coming from the speakers. She looked up as Cora approached, blinked, a ghost of a smile passing over her face. It was so quick Cora almost missed it and by the time she slid into the passenger seat it was gone.

“We’re going to mall,” Lydia announced. “I need new shoes.”

Cora doubted Lydia actually needed shoes, she seemed to own about a million pairs, but she didn’t argue.

“Good, I need new everything.”

Lydia looked her up and down, taking in the plain tank top and jeans she was wearing. “You’re going to need my help.”

\--

Lydia was just as annoying at the mall as Cora thought she would be. She spent forever searching through the racks, trying everything on, flitting from store to store, and constantly asking Cora for her opinion.

Which was ridiculous because she criticized Cora’s own style no less than ten times while they were out.

“You’ve already got three black t-shirts, how many more do you really need?”

Cora glared at her, clutching the shirt in her arms. She didn’t _care_ if she had a bunch of them already, this one was _soft._

“You don’t control me Martin, it’s not like you’re paying for any of it.”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “At least get that one in a different colour.”

She grabbed a green shirt from the rack and thrust it towards her. Cora eyed it, torn between actually liking the shade and not wanting to let Lydia win. She took it though, shoving the black one roughly back onto the rack.

“Fine.”

Lydia grinned. “Now for the shoes.”

Because after being at the mall for two hours they still hadn’t looked at any shoes, which was what Lydia had gone there for in the first place.

Cora paid for the shirt and a new pair of jeans and let the redhead drag her to the Aldo on the upper level. To her surprise Lydia went for the athletic section first, inspecting a pair of purple and black runners.

“What, no new heels?” Cora teased, picking up a similar pair in straight black.

“Oh I’m getting those too. But seeing as we have a supernatural crisis every other week, I’d like something I can run in.”

There was a tightness in her voice that wasn’t there before and Cora was tempted to reach for her hand to comfort her. Lydia grabbed the shoes before she could act on it though, finding a bench to sit on. Cora picked up the pair she’d been eyeing and sat down next to her. They didn’t speak for a few minutes and Cora wasn’t sure how to break the silence. Part of her wanted to make a jab at the girl, but the other part wanted to say something comforting. She wasn’t good at comforting though so she didn’t say anything and eventually Lydia broke the silence herself.

“Okay, we’re getting you a nice pair of heels.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

Lydia was giving her that look, the one that said she was going to be stubborn and obnoxious about it no matter what Cora’s reasoning was.

“They’re impractical,” Cora said. No one would ever be able to say she didn’t go down without a fight.

“What if you have a date?”

“Why would I need heels for a date?” Now she was just being antagonistic, and Lydia knew it.

“C’mon, I think a nice black pair would suit you.”

Lydia snatched her hand and hauled her across the store while Cora tried not to think about their current skin-on-skin contact. The warmth of Lydia’s hand in hers had grabbed her wolf’s attention. Usually people touching her unexpectedly annoyed her but she didn’t feel annoyed at all. It felt… well, she didn’t know what it felt like. And she wasn’t keen on analyzing it either.

Lydia dropped her hand picked up a pair of black strappy heels that would make her at least five inches taller.

“Are you kidding me?” Cora asked. “Those will make me look like a giant!”

The once over Lydia gave her made her feel that thing again, that thing she didn’t have a name for. “You’re right, something a little bit shorter.”

She grabbed for another shoe, something that definitely had glitter on it, and Cora cringed. “No, don’t even think about it. I am not putting those things on.”

“You’re impossible.”

“I think you’re just trying to torture me.”

“You would know if I was torturing you,” she said, and there was heat in her voice that wasn’t there before.

Cora caught her gaze and they looked at each other for a moment, barely a second or two, and then Lydia thrust another pair of heels at her. “Try these on.”

Thankfully there was no glitter on these and Cora resigned to buy them, if only so she didn’t have to listen to Lydia complain about it on the way back.

Which was also how she ended up with a pair of flats and two skirts. Cora hadn’t worn a skirt since she was seven. Lydia had threatened her into them while brandishing a designer boot. It had been a ridiculous display and somehow endearing. In return she had made Lydia buy new workout gear.

Because the girl was clearly on edge about her ability to defend herself (and, she assumed, others) and Cora offered to help her train. And Lydia had accepted.

She was grinning when she got back to the loft, relieved to see that Derek had left. She had actually enjoyed shopping with Lydia and it was a small piece of happiness she wasn’t willing to share just yet.

\--

They trained at the preserve at least four times a week, sometimes with the rest of the pack, sometimes just the two of them. Lydia wasn’t in bad shape but she was working on her endurance and her fighting.

Cora liked teaching her how to fight. She caught on quickly and although she’d never match a werewolf’s strength or speed she could definitely hold her own against more human threats. And she liked how the scent of sadness lifted off of her while she concentrated on her movements. Cora understood why the others didn’t seem to notice Lydia’s anxiousness and grief all the time; after spending so much time with the girl it had just become another layer of her smell, something that made her Lydia. She didn’t notice it until the fighting chased it away -temporarily that is.

She wasn’t surprised when Lydia announced she wanted to learn archery. Long range weapons had always made Cora uneasy, she’d had far too many of them pointed at her in her relatively short lifetime, but she understood why Lydia would want to learn. She stood a much better chance against an enemy with something she could shoot, and she wasn’t qualified for a gun license.

And the bow and arrow had been Allison’s weapon.

Cora couldn’t teach her that though so for awhile Lydia spent half her training time with Chris Argent who had come back a month ago but barely spoke to any of them. No one blamed him. But training together seemed to help them both and although Cora missed their frequent sessions she was happy to see Lydia relax around someone else.

\--

“Sometimes I forget,” Lydia said, swinging her fist out. If Cora had been human it would have connected with her nose but she wasn’t so she caught the girls fist in her hand instead.

“Forget what?”

Lydia pulled her hand back but instead of going for another hit she sunk into the grass, wiping sweat off her brow. They were alone in the preserve, the rest of the pack out enjoying their Saturday. Not that Cora wasn’t enjoying hers. Training with Lydia was something she had found herself actively looking forward to.

“That she’s gone.”

Cora sat down next to her, waiting to see if she’d say more. She didn’t though and Cora reached for her, resting her hand on the girl’s knee. Lydia gave her a smile smile but it didn’t go as far as her eyes.

“You get used to it,” Cora said after a few silent moments. “It sucks -it sucks a lot all the time, but eventually you just get used to it.”

“What, you’re not going to give me the ‘it get’s better’ speech?” The words were teasing but the tone wasn’t.

Cora shook her head. “I wouldn’t lie to you. It doesn’t get better, it just gets easier.”

They stared at each other, eyes searching, and Cora wanted nothing more than to pull her close and stroke her hair. The wolf in her wanted to offer comfort, make her feel safe and okay. Lydia was a part of her pack.

All at once Cora felt at home. The doubts about her place in Beacon Hills, with the pack, slipped away as she realized this had always been it for her. This town, these people, the beautiful redhead in front of her. Nothing else had ever felt so real, not since before.

Lydia’s face had softened a bit while they looked at each other and Cora smiled at her. A genuine smile.

“C’mon,” she said, getting to her feet and holding out her hand to help the other girl up. “Let’s go get some food, I’m starving.”

\--

“Why do I have to go?” Cora asked, warily eyeing the armful of dresses Lydia was holding.

“Because I don’t have anyone else to go with.”

Cora raised her brows. “I fail to believe you don’t have a legion of guys falling around your feet to ask you to prom.”

Lydia threw the dresses on her bed and disappeared back into the closet, a walk-in monstrosity filled with more clothes than Cora had ever owned in her entire life.

“I don’t want to go with some random guy.”

“There’s plenty of people in the pack to go with. Or what about Danny?”

“Danny has a date,” came her voice somewhere between the two rows of clothing. _Two rows._ “And everyone else in the pack has a date. Except you.”

Cora sighed and dropped into the computer chair by the desk, spinning idly. “What about Malia?”

Not that Cora wanted Lydia to go with her cousin -or anyone else for that matter- but she had to ask.

“She’s going with Kira.”

“I thought Kira was going with Scott?” They were dating after all.

“She is,” Lydia said, reappearing with more dresses on her arm as well as a few pairs of shoes.

“Oh,” said Cora. “Good for them?”

Lydia grinned. “No one can say Scott McCall doesn’t have game. He is a pretty good kisser.”

Cora frowned. “You kissed Scott?”

Lydia threw the clothes and shoes on the bed and shrugged. “Once. It was awhile ago”

Cora huffed but pushed down the ball of jealousy forming in her chest. Lydia had kissed a lot of people, she knew that. And Scott was better than Aiden by a longshot.

“Fine,” she said finally. “I’ll go with you. But I’m not wearing any glitter, bows, or floral.”

“Deal.”

\--

Lydia kept her word and Cora ended up in a strappy plain black dress that hit just above her knee and the heels she’d been forced into buying weeks before. She felt stupid in it when she looked herself over in the mirror.Derek reassured her that she looked great, even called her beautiful with that fond brotherly look in his eye that made her want to punch and hug him simultaneously. It was easy for him to say though, he got to wear a tux and flat shoes.

Derek dropped her off at Lydia’s before going to pick up Stiles because _“we are not driving to your prom in that piece of junk you call a car Stiles.”_ Cora had to fight off her nerves the entire drive over. Since when had she become a nervous person?

Ms. Martin let her in, complimenting her dress and her hair which she had barely touched, letting it hang loose around her shoulders. She’d brushed it at least.

“Hurry up Red!” she called, awkwardly climbing the stairs in her heels. She was a werewolf, she was supposed to be more coordinated than this dammit.

“Don’t call me that!” Lydia yelled from her bedroom, but there wasn’t any actual anger in it.

When Cora had finally mastered the stairs she found Lydia standing in front of her mirror, looking herself over with sharp eyes. No one was more critical of Lydia than herself.

The redhead was wearing a glittery white mini dress that Cora would never be caught dead in as well as a pair of bright red platform pumps.

She looked incredible. Beyond incredible.

Lydia caught sight of her and spun around and Cora could hear her heartbeat racing. The faint scent of fear from being caught unaware lasted only a second before it was replaced with something else. Something just as primal. Cora sucked in a breath. It was arousal -she was definitely smelling arousal.

“You look great,” Lydia said, her voice tight, before she turned back to the mirror and jabbing pins into her hair. It was all piled on top of her head, leaving the curve of her neck exposed. Cora’s gaze fixated on her skin and she was overcome with the desire to step forward and bury her face into it, breathe her in deep and rub her own scent on her. Mark her.

She took a deep breath through her mouth to steady herself. The whole room smelled like hormones and lust and the sight of the bed in front of her, just there and ready, was not helping matters.

“So do you,” Cora said after a second. “Now let’s go, we’re going to be late.”

\--

Prom was a lot more fun than Cora thought it was going to be. She got to watch Stiles repeatedly embarrass her brother with his awkward dancing and there was a lot of food. Food made everything better.

It was also the strongest test of her willpower she’d ever had. Because Lydia looked more delicious than food ever could and she kept insisting that they dance together. And there was nothing awkward about Lydia’s dancing, all grace and sensual swaying. Cora had to will back her claws more than once. She’d never popped her claws outside a fight before and the fact that Lydia was eliciting that kind of reaction from her was thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

And the other girl knew what she was doing to her, she had to. Even without werewolf senses Cora knew it was stupidly obvious.

“Derek’s letting us have an after party at the loft!” Malia said, bouncing up next to where she was standing by the refreshment table. Lydia was entertaining Stiles with a dance and Cora was taking a few minutes to gather her strength.

“Let me guess, no drinking, laughing, or having fun.”

Malia rolled her eyes. She was definitely a Hale. “Stiles broke him on the no drinking rule in about ten seconds. And Lydia brewed up that wolfsbane vodka of hers so it should be fun.”

Cora had had some of that vodka before. It could knock you on your ass if you weren’t careful. The idea of seeing Derek get completely wasted sounded _fantastic_.

“Sounds like fun. But no one’s allowed to pass out drunk in my bed.”

Malia grinned. “Not even Lydia?”

Cora felt her ears heat up but she glared at the other girl anyways. Malia seemed unperturbed. It was hard to intimidate a girl who had spent most of her life as a coyote, and before she could try Lydia was coming towards her again, the smell of her perfume and just _her_ permeating Cora’s senses. Malia bumped her shoulder before leaving them alone.

“Derek’s letting us have a party,” Cora said, letting Lydia take her hand. Both girls hearts jumped at the contact.

“Stiles told me. Should be entertaining. Although I am not getting drunk in this dress, it cost more than one of my car payments.”

\--

They stopped at Lydia’s on their way to the loft so she could change into something more comfortable. The car ride had been mostly quiet, soft music coming from the radio and a few exchanged comments about the night. The space between them was charged but Cora wasn’t sure what to do about it. She’d always been the type of person to take control of a situation, but with Lydia she didn’t want to. She wanted to meet somewhere in the middle. And although she knew how Lydia’s body reacted to her, she didn’t know what she was thinking. Or how she felt.

Cora had followed her to her room before she realized what she was doing. Lydia had to change her clothes. Which meant obviously taking the ones she had on _off._ She backed up towards the door.

“I’ll wait downstairs.”

Lydia took a step closer to her, reaching out for her hand before she could leave and looking her in the eye. “Thank you.”

Cora looked down at where their hands were joined, letting their fingers intertwine. “For what?”

“For going to prom with me. For helping me train. For… just being there.”

This moment was important, Cora knew it. In the past she would have brushed it off, made a sarcastic comment and told her to hurry up and change so they could leave. In the past she had been an expert at destroying important moments.

“I like doing all those things,” she said, tugging the redhead closer to her. They were only about a foot apart from each other now and Cora could barely think over their racing pulses.

Lydia smiled and the way it brightened up her face made her heart clench. And it felt only right when Lydia stretched up to kiss her, just a chaste peck on the lips before pulling away again.

“Give me a few minutes to throw on some leggings and we can go. You have pajamas I can borrow right?’

Cora quirked a brow at her. “You’re going to couch crash?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, why would I do that when you have a perfectly nice bed?”

An image of Lydia in her clothes, curled up on her bed and letting her smell sink into her sheets, flashed through her mind. Just the thought of it made her breathless.

Cora grabbed her and pulled so that they were flush against each other before kissing her again. It wasn’t a particularly hard kiss, but it wasn’t gentle either. Lydia wrapped her arms around her waist and dragged the kiss out for a few more seconds before they broke away.

Cora looked down at her, licking her lips, memorizing the taste of her. “Yeah, I’ve got something you can wear.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know about any spelling/grammar mistakes. I checked this over a few times but it's unbeta'd so I could have missed something.
> 
> Also, feel free to some talk to me on [tumblr](http://punkhale.tumblr.com).


End file.
